Legal Advice Please

Well a 19 year old pulled out in front of my wife Tuesday. He begged her not to call the law enforcement officers, that he woulde gladly pay for the damage. Today she called him to tell him the estimate and that we were gonna mail it tomorrow. Now he refuses to pay /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif What are our "legal" options?

Always, always, always call the cops and have a report written. Its now your wifes word against the punks legally. If there is damage to your vehicle and his hopefully the cops can verify the cars did indeed collide. Is there any witnesses (3rd party)?

Your only legal recourse now is to take the little turd to small claims court, and hope the judge believes your side of the story; but you will still need a police report to take him to court because if you do not, the judge will laugh you out of court. You can still go to the police station and file a report. Most law enforcement will give you approximately two weeks after the accident to file an accident report, but it differs slightly from state-to-state (or county). If it has been longer than two weeks, then you may be completely out of luck, and the little turd conned you into falling for his little crybaby act.

Love to do the "old chain on each end between the two Blazers pull" /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif

Definately call the police, request that an officer come and investigate. Give the officer the pukes name and phone number, its possible that the puke might change his tune if he's talking to a cop instead of your wife. Good luck!

1st file an accident report
2nd file a police report
3rd contact your ins. co. and give them all his info.
4th if that doesnt work, take him to small clains court. It should be less than $100 to take him to court. If you win, you can have him pay all court costs. I'd say its worth it to spend $100 to get your $750. If he doesn't pay after you win, you can have him arrested for contempt of court. He'll spend a night in jail and then have to explain to a judge why he didn't pay you.

Well I will do the filing reports route and follow through. I called and left a message when I got home from working 12.5 hrs and informed them that we will not let this go...legaly. Thank you all for the advice. I'll post an update when it is settled. Thanks again!

Definately file a report. Contact an officer from the department that would have covered it had they been notified. they may tell you that there is nothing to investigate now. See if they have a self service accident report or counter report that can be filed.

***Warning*** In some jurisdictions if you are cited for failure to report an accident or leaving the scene it is a pretty expensive citation and may cause loss of license. You might consider they old hypthetical approach to an officer. Sir if someone was involved in an accident and it was the other guys fault and he said he would pay and doesnt is there anything that an officer could do to help. That would at least get you an answer from an officer in the area who is familiar with the laws of your state. Good luck.

Like someone said earlier, you should still file an accident/police report. And call your insurance co., they have investigators who may be of some help. Hopefully you got the kids info.
I would file in small claims court immediately, it doesn't cost much and is easy to do. But the defendant can always remove it to a higher court, which means you would then need a lawyer.
You can also call up a lawyer in the phone book, explain your entire situation and they will discuss it with you and most times they will mail you a letter rehashing your conversation and with their thoughts on your situation.

dont know about n.C. but they may both be at fault now for leaving the accident.

as said before, her word vice his. they will give her more credit since she has been driving longer, but may ticket both parties for leaving. i would go to the police in the matter and be ready for the charges that could be brough upon her.

well, FIRST i would check local laws. your state may allow people to try to settle first.

the other option in my eyes, although not legal is to just park in a bad part of town with the car running and the door unlocked... then get a new car.... if they find the car it will be wrecked the same or more and viola, new car or fixed car....
like i sad,not legal... but it would work... in theory.
/forums/images/graemlins/rotfl.gif

sorry to hear about your situation. but someone already said it. ALWAYS CALL THE POLICE.
good luck with it.
grant

well looks like you will have to pay $750 in 'stupid tax' (to quote Dave Ramsey)

I can pretty much quaretee that you will NEVER get that money out of that guy, whether you go to court or not.

I had a guy RUN ME OFF THE ROAD AND FLIP MY CAR and the cops wouldn't do crap because they weren't there when he was and it was my word against his. Even though my car's red paint was all over the side of his blue truck.

Now make sure that your wife understands that she is to call the police for ANY accident, no matter how minor it seems. When the other driver is begging you NOT to call, it should send up little red flags from now on.

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